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Police believe a child started the fire at a Scott St. condominium complex Saturday evening that caused an estimated $2-million damage and covered the neighbourhood in a thick blanket of black smoke that could be seen for miles around.

An 11-year-old was identified by detectives as the suspect in the fire investigators say was intentionally set.

The partially built Walkers Creek Condo condominium project was badly damaged in the incident.

In a press release issued late Sunday, Niagara Regional Police said the child is “under the age of criminal responsibility” and no charges will be laid. Police did not say if the child was a boy or girl, or how they identifed the 11-year-old as the suspect.

The fire started around 7 p.m. Saturday, covering the Grantham area in such smoky darkness it reduced visibility to nearly zero.

Police kept shoppers and pedestrians around Grantham Plaza near Scott and Niagara streets well back from the raging blaze that gutted the interior of the condo building that was under construction.

“When our crews got here, the smoke was so thick we immediately went defensive,” said St. Catharines deputy fire chief Larry Jones. “That means no one went into the structure.”

Possibly because the exterior of the uncompleted building was made of concrete, the fire did not spread to a neighbouring apartment building or strip mall. But the impenetrable black smoke was a serious problem.

Fire crews found it difficult to see through the smoke. Firefighters went floor to floor in the apartment building, asking residents to stay inside and close their windows. At the same time, police established a perimeter to keep citizens away from the smoke, which could be seen from as far away as Brock University.

No one was injured nor taken to hospital as a result of the smoke, police said.

“I have not seen smoke that thick since a recycling plant fire we had in the early 1990s,” Jones said.

The fire was brought under control around 7:40 p.m., although police kept the curious well back from the construction site while firefighters attacked hot spots.

Patrick Burke, a real-estate agent working on the condo project, said 16 of the 44 planned units in the five-storey building were already sold. Had the fire not gutted the building, it was scheduled to open in December.

Burke said the concrete and steel exterior of the building remains intact. Had it been a wooden structure like a house, it would have burned to the ground. However, he said, it was still too early Sunday to know the extent of repairs or reconstruction the site might need.